Mike Champlin XC contest

Pete Lehmann

Contestants in the Region Nine Yearlong Contest,

John Scott, the organizer of the world wide Mike Champlin XC contest asked me to bring that contest to the attention of participants in the Region Nine contests.

The beauty of John's contest is that it enables a contestant to enter the contest with flights flown in Wyoming or Pennsylvania, and on a hang glider, rigid wing or sailplane. The mechanism that allows this is that a contestant's flights are measured against the existing record at the site from which the flight is flown. The flight is measured as a fraction of the current record, and points are awarded according to that percentage. For example, a sixty mile flight flown from Ridgely would represent 78.6% of the current Ric Niehaus' 76.3 mile site record. The pilot would thus receive 786 points for that flight. If the pilot went 53 miles from Jacks Mountain, that would be 86.2 % (862 points) of Mike Neuman's 61.5 mile record. The same pilot could also include a 262 mile flight flown from Rock Springs, WY (851 points as it's 85.1% of Larry Tudor's site record). And so on.

A contestant's score is the sum of the five best flights. By enabling one to do well at one's home sites, one can actually compete against hotshot pilots flying at world-record generating sites. This is precisely what happened in the 2000 contest when Ric Niehaus won with flights flown exclusively in Region Nine despite competing against the likes of Davis Straub flying all over the world.

If any of you are interested in the contest, I encourage you to go to the contest's website and learn the details of entering flights and registering site records.

http://www.hanggliding.org/wsc/wscHome.htm

I think it's a great concept and will again enter my flights this year,
Pete Lehmann